Steven Gill Bradbury[1][2] (born September 12, 1958) is an American lawyer and government official who served as the General Counsel of the United States Department of Transportation during the first Trump Administration.
[11][12] In June 2017, he was nominated by President Donald Trump to become General Counsel of the United States Department of Transportation.
[18] On January 7, 2021, Transportation Secretary Elaine Chao submitted her resignation to President Donald Trump due to the 2021 United States Capitol attack.
His father, Edward T. Bradbury,[22] died when he was 11 months old, and his mother supported the family by working nights and taking in laundry to supplement their Social Security income.
[23] After working in publishing and as a legal assistant in New York in the early 1980s, Bradbury attended the University of Michigan Law School, where he received his J.D., magna cum laude, in 1988.
After working as an Attorney-Adviser in the Office of Legal Counsel from 1991 to 1992, he served as a law clerk to Justice Clarence Thomas on the Supreme Court of the United States from 1992 to 1993.
In May 2005, during this "trial period", Bradbury issued a set of opinions authorizing the use of waterboarding and other brutal interrogation techniques that are frequently described as torture; his nomination to lead the OLC occurred one month later.
[33][9][26] Bradbury's nomination was returned to the President under Rule XXXI, Paragraph 6 of the United States Senate at the end of 2005.
[38] In August 2004, Bradbury issued a memorandum concluding that the Second Amendment to the United States Constitution secures an individual right to keep and bear arms.
[11][12][3] In May 2005, in response to requests from the CIA, Bradbury authored the "2005 Bradbury Memo"[5]: 133 confirming that 13 so-called "enhanced interrogation techniques" did not constitute torture, including waterboarding,[7] nudity,[5]: 133 walling,[42] stress positions, slapping or striking a prisoner,[43][10][7] exposure to extreme temperatures,[8][10] dousing with cold water,[44] and forced sleep deprivation of up to 180 hours (7+1⁄2 days).
[51]: 351 These memoranda were described by Democrats as an attempt to sidestep anti-torture laws and subvert a 2004 public Justice Department legal opinion characterizing torture as "abhorrent".
[53][54][55] In response to the 2006 Supreme Court decision Hamdan v. Rumsfeld, Bradbury described sections of Common Article 3 of the Geneva Conventions as "hopelessly vague", singling out its ban on "outrages upon person dignity, in particular, humiliating and degrading treatment"[56] and arguing that military tribunals should admit evidence obtained via torture.
The 2007 memo provided legal authorization and OLC approval for a more limited set of actions for use when interrogating high-value detainees.
[65] During the 2012 presidential election, Bradbury served as an advisor to Mitt Romney's campaign on matters of national security law.
[67] While working for Dechert, Bradbury represented Takata Corporation, which was at the time involved in negotiations with the National Highway Traffic Safety Administration (NHTSA) over a recall of its faulty airbags.
[77] In December 2022, The Heritage Foundation announced that Bradbury would be joining as a distinguished fellow who would be working on their "2025 Presidential Transition Project".
[78] Bradbury is credited with writing the chapter of Project 2025's publication Mandate for Leadership pertaining to the Department of Transportation,[21][79] and has served as an instructor for their Presidential Administration Academy.